Blizzard announces the first Overwatch League teams

With Blizzard continuing to push their first-person shooter Overwatch as an esport, with the company announcing the first seven city-based teams for the Overwatch League.

The Overwatch League uses a city-based team structure similar to traditional team based sports, so in that regard the teams announced will represent seven cities. The cities the seven teams will represent are Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Miami-Orlando, San Francisco, Shanghai and Seoul.

The seven city teams also have a strong set of owners who are entrepreneurs and leaders from traditional sports and esports. The team owners include:

Robert Kraft, Chairman and CEO of the Kraft Group and the New England Patriots (Boston)

Jeff Wilpon, Co-Founder and Partner of Sterling.VC and COO of the New York Mets (New York)

Noah Whinston, CEO of Immortals (Los Angeles)

Ben Spoont, CEO and Co-Founder of Misfits Gaming (Miami-Orlando)

Andy Miller, Chairman and Founder of NRG Esports (San Francisco)

NetEase (Shanghai)

Kevin Chou, Co-founder of Kabam (Seoul)

In the press release, which revealed the team owners, the owners stated their praise for Overwatch, the league and esports in general. Jeff Wilpon and Robert Kraft both of which who don’t come from traditional esports scenes talked about the potential for the Overwatch league with Jeff Wilpon stating, “We view our participation in the Overwatch League as a major opportunity to take a lead position where technology is converging with sports and media. This partnership with the Overwatch League and with some of the elite ownership groups in professional sports, offers a unique opportunity to connect with millions of dedicated fans, engaged and passionate about one of the world’s fastest growing sports, and to continue proudly representing New York.” Robert Kraft himself stated that he had been looking to enter the esports scene for a while. However, he was waiting for the right opportunity, and for him the Overwatch League is the right moment as he stated,“The incredible global success of Overwatch since its launch, coupled with the League’s meticulous focus on a structure and strategy that clearly represents the future of esports made this the obvious entry point for the Kraft Group.”

Blizzard is looking to make the upcoming league an enticing opportunity for team owners as according to Blizzard, “The league will create value for team owners through advertising, ticketing and broadcast rights revenues, with teams receiving an equal share of all league-wide net revenues. Teams will also keep all local revenues generated through their home territory and venue up to a set amount each year, unprecedented in esports; above the set amount, a percentage is sent to the league’s shared revenue pool. In addition, teams will have a license to operate and monetize up to five amateur events in their home territory each year, and to benefit from the sale of league-affiliated fan items in Overwatch, with 50% of the revenues going into the net shared revenue pool for all teams.”

While the Overwatch League doesn’t have a start date yet, Blizzard is betting big on Overwatch, but with so many companies looking to attract esports fans, it will be interesting to see if Blizzard’s ambitious league will attract a large enough audience.